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by Sa'adi Thawfeeq

Australian captain Ricky Ponting said his side was prepared to put up with a hostile crowd and the wiles of Muttiah Muralitharan when they meet Sri Lanka in the second day-night semi-final of the ICC Champions trophy at the R. Premadasa Stadium at 2.30 p.m. today.

"We are a fairly experienced side. We've been around the world and played a lot of one-day cricket in different countries. So we are used to the conditions and we are used to the hostilities of some crowds around the world," said Ponting ahead of today's final.

Leg-spinner Shane Warne has been the main target of the spectators in this tournament. He has been jeered on the field in Australia's two pool matches against New Zealand and Bangladesh played at the SSC.

An estimated 35,000 capacity sell-out crowd is expected to witness today's clash of the giants. "Sri Lanka obviously play very well in their conditions. They are used to these sort of wickets and with their home crowd, they'll probably have an edge. But that won't bother us," said Ponting. Sri Lanka in fact have the best record in one-day internationals played at home by all countries. They have won 65 of the 100 matches played on home soil losing only 26 with nine no-results. Australia on the other hand, have the best one-day record playing away from home, winning 85 of their 162 matches with 67 defeats, 3 ties and 7 no-results.

"Jayasuriya and Murali and a number of them are world class players. They have performed for a number of years. Murali is a world class bowler and he will not only be the hardest bowler to score runs off, but he is going to be their wicket-taking bowler through the middle period as well," said Ponting.

"We have left it to the individuals to work out a game plan to play him. It will vary from player to player. We have not made too much of a fuss about that. We've spoken a lot about how to play him in the past. We've watched him a lot on television. We've watched how the English tackled him in the Test and one-day series. Everyone's got their individual plans against him," said Ponting.

"There's no doubt its a tough game tomorrow for both sides. It's gonna be a fiery contest no doubt, the semi-final in the second biggest one-day competiton. Both sides are doing their best and doing everything they can do to win the game," he said.

Ponting said the outcome of the contest could be Australia's pace against Sri Lanka's spin. "The outcome of the game could probably be the way we play their slow bowlers. Our fast bowlers have done a fantastic job as well. For a long time they have been taking early wickets. We will be certainly trying to do that again tomorrow," said Ponting.

"This is probably my biggest game as captain apart from the first game I've captained. But I haven't really thought too much of that as being a huge game. We're just business as usual. It is just another game of one-day cricket as far as we are concerned. We will go out and try and do the little things throughout the course of the game to play well. If we do that, then we know that we are right in the game. We know that we are a good side and we know that if we play at our best we will be hard to beat.

That's as far as it goes with us," he said.

Ponting said he was not really bothered too much whether his team bats first or fields first. "We've set big totals batting first and, we have chased big totals. So we are not too concerned about that just yet. We want to prepare ourselves better as best as we can and go into tomorrow's game with our confidence high," said Ponting. Australia are likely to make just one change from the side that beat Bangladesh by nine wickets a week ago. Batsman Damien Martyn is expected to replace James Maher. In the spin department they will have to rely on Darren Lehmann and Michael Bevan to support Shane Warne. The only worring factor for the Aussies will be the hot and humid energy sapping weather which forced South African batsman Herschelle Gibbs to retire after scoring what at one time seemed a match-winning century.

"It's a bit of a worry, but we've been here for a while now. We have tried to acclimatise as best as we can to the heat. We've got a very good fitness instructor, who'll help us recover the best possible way we can if we make it through to the semi-finals," said Ponting. Sri Lanka captain Sanath Jayasuriya voicing almost the same thoughts as Ponting said: "Playing at home we have the advantage with the crowd behind us. We are not under any pressure. We are treating it as another international game. We have played against so many good sides and Australia happens to be one of them".

"We are confident and the players know they are playing against a good side. They are giving more than 100 percent tomorrow," said Jayasuriya. He admitted that Australia was one of the best sides in the world and it will be a tough match for both sides.

"Whoever plays well on the day will win. Whenever we play Australia we want to do well. I expect a special performance from the boys," said Jayasuriya on whom Sri Lanka carry their main hopes. He is one of the few batsmen in the tournament to score a century making an unbeaten 102 in the opening game against Pakistan.

"We are pretty much prepared as we can be and we are in home conditions with crowd support. That's a help. We rather play Australia here than away in an ICC mini World Cup semi-final," said coach Dav Whatmore.

"It's a big game, one of the bigger ones we are playing. It's a winner take all really. It doesn't come much bigger than this," he said. Comparing the present Australian side to the past, Whatmore said: "The names have been a bit bigger in past

Australian sides. The performance of this particular team have been very good. They are a very strong physical side, proabably a touch better fielding team. They are a team that's progressing forward and still a very difficult opposition".

Whatmore said that on paper, the Australian bowling attack had been based around the quick bowlers who have done very well. "Our attack has also relied on heavy contributions from pace. We've got the luxury of having a couple more spinners. If the conditions suit spin we've got the bowlers to exploit it," he said.

Sri Lanka are likely to strengthen their slow bowling attack at the expense of a fast bowler. The two countries have not met in a one-day international for the past three years. The last occasion they met was in the three-nation Aiwa Cup final at R. Premadasa Stadium in 1999 when Sri Lanka won by eight wickets.

The teams: 

SRI LANKA (from): Sanath Jayasuriya (captain), Marvan Atapattu, Kumar Sangakkara, Aravinda de Silva, Mahela Jayawardene, Russell Arnold, Chaminda Vaas, Kumar Dharmasena, Upul Chandana, Pulasthi Gunaratne, Muttiah Muralitharan, Dilhara Fernando, Tillekeratne Dilshan.

AUSTRALIA (from): Ricky Ponting (captain), Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden, Damien Martyn, Darren Lehmann, Michael Bevan, Shane Watson, Shane Warne, Brett Lee, Jason Gillespie, Glenn McGrath, James Maher.

UMPIRES: Steve Bucknor (West Indies) and Dave Orchard (South Africa), TV umpire: Rudi Koertzen (South Africa), Match Referee: Wasim Raja (Pakistan).

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